Pharma sector gets new ISO tool for drug identification

Up until now, there was no means of identifying medical substances on a global basis. This led to numerous challenges when adverse reactions to medicinal products were reported in one country and had to be interpreted by others. Greater co-ordination among drug regulatory authorities and increased transparency in reporting suspected adverse drug reactions was needed to improve current decision-making processes.

ISO IDMP is a collection of five ISO standards, which together form the basis for a system of unique, global identification of medicinal products. It is designed to enable cross-border healthcare delivery, particularly the exchange of electronic prescriptions and safe dispensation of prescribed medicinal products. IDMP will impact many key areas within a pharmaceutical company, from registration with an authority, research and development, to manufacturing, distribution and product safety.

Lisa Spellman, Director of Global Standards for the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and Secretary of technical committee ISO/TC 215 on health informatics, believes the advent of IDMP is a globally significant event that will change the world. “One might have thought that IDMP already existed, but it did not. Now, thanks to ISO experts, IDMP will provide a structure and methodology to generate global product documentation that can be used by regulators and clinicians worldwide.”